The latest fire outbreak at the Konkonba Market has provided Greater Accra Regional Minister Henry Quartey, yet another reason to relocate the traders from their present abode.
On the midnight of last Thursday, the sprawling slum which serves as Accra’s major yam market went up in flames and it took firefighters close to three hours to douse it.
Although investigators of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) are yet to release their findings, the cause of the fire which is a common feature of this part of the nation’s capital is likely to be electrical.
The illegal and dangerous wiring of the slum makes it susceptible to fire outbreaks. The incessant warning by experts, especially the GNFS, the danger poses by illegal wiring and the use of inferior materials have fallen on deaf ears, the outcome of which is the fires which characterize the slums.
As to whether those who engage in the services of unqualified persons to do the wiring of the location even settle their bills to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is a matter for the state agency to answer.
Being a place where meter readers can easily be attacked for their legitimate assignments, we won’t be surprised if such readings are not efficiently carried out. Be it as it may, won’t it be endorsing the illegality when meters are allocated to the occupants at all let alone reading them knowing well that the wiring system was unprofessionally done and the materials used substandard?
The Regional Minister who is yet to remove his working boots after relocating the onion sellers from the adjoining site has set his sight on the Konkonba Market having advised the traders and residents to get set for his next action. They too will soon be on their way to the Adjen Kotoku Market to join the now smiling onion sellers who shared a boundary with them until recently.
Information available is that arrangements are ongoing to clear the site of the squatters as humanely as possible.
The eventual relocation of the squatters would have rid Accra of the most infamous slum in the country.
Such fires, a feature of the slum as observed in a preceding paragraph could one day go beyond the confines of the place and threaten the adjoining residences, infernos we cannot countenance in the nation’s capital.
The relocation of the slum is a wise thing to do considering the danger it poses to the city. The unplanned state of the place makes it a favourite of criminals besides the place being conducive for the smuggling of firearms to the northern parts of the country. The unfinished assignment we know would soon be accomplished, the man leading the charge being stoic.